Millman bemused by Cecil no-show

Connections of Sergeant Cecil are mystified by the poor performance of the nation’s favourite stayer in the Gold Cup.

The popular eight-year-old will have several tests over the next few days even though he appears to be none the worse after trailing home last behind Yeats at Royal Ascot.

“There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with him,” said trainer Rod Millman.

“It often takes a few days for something to come out, but he seems fine and he didn’t seem stressed after the race. He’s back home and was in the paddock this morning.

“We don’t know what went wrong, we are basically lost, but we’ll do some tests over the next few days. First impressions are there is nothing wrong, but we will not make any plans for the next 10 days or so.

“He’s been very dependable for a long time. Normally when we run him everything is spot-on but he’s one of those horses that if he is slightly wrong, he’s 100% wrong.

“Once, we ran him and he came back with the faintest dirty nose and was tailed-off. Most horses would have finished in the middle.

“There’s nothing like the Gold Cup but he didn’t run up to form. On all known form he should have been second – we’ve beaten the second (Geordieland) and the third (Le Miracle).

“We would never beat the winner – he’s a great horse – but we’ve not run a race at all.”